CANNES, FRANCE, June 17, 2017 - (ACN Newswire) - Lions Health, the prestigious event dedicated to creative healthcare and pharma communications, has announced the pneumonia awareness campaign "Not available in your country" as the winner of the 2017 Young Lions Health Award. The winning campaign was created by Giulia Marchi, Art Director and Giovanni Santoni, Art Director at Sudler International Milan, WPP Health & Wellness, Italy.

This year's competition was held in partnership with UNICEF and "la Caixa" Banking Foundation. Participants were required to submit a creative, multi-channel campaign to be launched on World Pneumonia Day on 12 November with the aim of raising public awareness and engagement in the fight against pneumonia and increasing the investment of private and public stakeholders to reach every child in the fight against the disease.

Despite pneumonia being preventable, it accounts for 16 per cent of deaths of children under five years old, making it the leading cause of infectious disease deaths among under-fives globally.

The winning campaign was one of 64 entries and was selected by a team of industry experts, including the following jurors from Cannes: Mandi Fine, Justine Metcalfe, Riotesh Patel, Diana Janicki; members of "la Caixa" Banking Foundation: Ariadna Bardolet, International Programs Director, and Montse Blanco, Director of the Advertising and Corporate Image Department; and UNICEF representatives: Kristoffer Gandrup-Marino, Chief of Innovation of the Supply Division Innovation Unit, and Angela Travis, Chief of Communication of the Private Fundraising and Partnerships Division.

"Global health is one of the main priorities in international cooperation for "la Caixa" Banking Foundation. The great commitment young creatives' have shown with their projects will help to raise awareness worldwide on the belief that no children should ever die from a preventable disease like pneumonia," says Jaume Giro, CEO of "la Caixa" Banking Foundation.

In 2015, UNICEF and "la Caixa" Banking Foundation launched a partnership to fight childhood pneumonia through improved pneumonia diagnostic products that measure a child's respiratory rate. The partnership included a Euro 5 million donation which helped incentivize the development of commercially available Acute Respiratory Infectious Diagnostic Aids (ARIDA devices).

"The partnership is proving effective in driving results for children," says Kristoffer Gandrup-Marino, Chief of Innovation at UNICEF Supply Division. "The strategic collaboration between UNICEF and "la Caixa" Banking Foundation, has made it possible to enable industry to develop relevant pneumonia diagnostic devices. This delivers support on our mission to help save children's lives."

UNICEF and "la Caixa" Banking Foundation participated in the expert panel to find the winner of this year's award, which is given to young professionals in the world of healthcare communications and aims to seek out the next generation of young talent in creative communications.

Speaking at the Festival, Giulia Marchi and Giovanni Santoni, winners of this award, said: "We found the Young Lions Health brief very moving. The idea that so many children are deprived of life-saving medicine because of where they happen to be born really shocked us. This was the inspiration for our 'Not available in your country' idea, in which we would block popular online content on World Pneumonia Day. We're so happy that the jury selected it as the winner".

Lions Health aims to motivate change and challenge norms in the highly regulated healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. This competition seeks out the next generation of young talent and provides them with a platform to demonstrate their ingenuity. The jury were hugely impressed with the range of ideas and the bravery of the concepts, which demanded full attention and engagement and we're delighted to welcome Giulia Marchi and Giovanni Santoni to celebrate at the Festival," said Louise Benson, Executive Festival Director of Lions Health.

*****Lions Health runs from 17-18 June, in Cannes, France, during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Entry to Lions Health is included in the Complete pass, and standalone passes are also available. The new 4 Day Pass offers access to the first four days of the Festival, including Lions Health, Lions Innovation and the Festival Fringe.